The concept of transparency is used to talk about objects, processes, and people. Drawing on
social cognition and metaphor research, the present thesis investigates the metaphorical
transparency of others, or the extent to which an observer believes to be accurately inferring a
person’s dispositions. Consistent with the everyday use of the transparency metaphor, we
hypothesize that the perceived accuracy of one’s own inferences will be higher for observers
who view a metaphorically-transparent person, than for observers who view a metaphorically-opaque
person. Three studies test and reject this hypothesis, but provide mixed evidence that the
perceived truthfulness of others varies in a metaphor-consistent way. We discuss how this
finding fits into existing theories of metaphor and cognition and discuss avenues for further
research.
Keywords: transparency, metaphor, social cognition